Accreditation of the Armed Forces Academy according to the NATO standards

The Armed Forces Academy of General M. R. Štefánik (hereinafter referred to as “AFA”) sent a request for inclusion in the process of institutional accreditation to the Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (HQ SACT) in Norfolk in March 2015. Following this request, the NATO Quality Assurance (QA) team consisting of four members and led by the Lt Col Christos Andritsos from Greece visited the AFA on 26 and 27 April, 2017 (on-site visit).

The QA team held working meetings with the representatives of the AFA – the Vice - Rector for Education, Assoc. Prof. Peter Spilý, PhD., the Vice – Rector for Science, Assoc. Prof. Marcel Harakaľ, PhD., the Director of the Professional Military Education Centre, Col Tomáš Novotný, PhD. and other representatives of the AFA directly involved in the process. The negotiations contained information on the structure and tasks of the AFA, they were primarily focused on the process of the complex preparedness for the institutional accreditation which is one of the main tasks of the AFA in 2017 and which results from the document White Paper on Defence of the Slovak Republic and the elaboration of the Slovak Government´s Statement of Policy for years 2016 – 2020.

The part of negotiations with the NATO team was based on the key documentation of the AFA, the Long-Term Strategy 2015 – 2025, the Board of Quality Directive and the Internal System of Quality at the AFA. Both personnel and budgetary policies of the AFA were discussed.

The QA team visited the premises of the International Staff Officers´ Course (ISOC) and the team members familiarised themselves with the course history and the current state of preparedness for the performance of courses according to the NATO standards. The team members met the instructors of the course who explained the system of the quality management and the system of the documentation management related to the ISOC courses to them.

At the conclusion of the visit the representatives of the AFA presented to the QA team the projects as well as other activities, through which the academy is directly involved in cooperation with the NATO countries and partner countries in the field of research and education within the NATO Science and Technology Organization activities (STO), including the activities of the NATO Defense Education Enhancement Program (DEEP).

The draft of the evaluation report, which at its conclusion will contain a statement of the QA team to the accreditation of the AFA, will be sent to the academy within 30 days. The report will be subsequently submitted to the ACT Deputy Chief of Staff Joint Force Trainer (SACT DCOS JFT) for approval.